Darth Vader Costume Display Mannequin

A custom mannequin and display base for a replica Darth Vader costume for for a video game company’s office.

As part of a larger project several years ago, when we added themed elements to an officially licensed video game company’s offices, we created this imposing, life sized Darth Vader statue on a “most impressive” frozen Hoth style display base.

We were able to source a great replica Darth Vader costume from a collector, which was made in a similar size to the original Darth Vader actor, David Prowse. The actor’s tall height and larger than normal upper body required us to create a custom mannequin body for the display. We hand sculpted a custom body form to closely match his vintage measurements and then molded that to create a fiberglass copy. For his arms we chose to create custom oversized bendable mannequin arms, which were also hand sculpted, then molded and cast in flexible foam with wire cores. This allowed the Darth Vader mannequin to have great pose-ability in the arms, right down to the fingers.

We discussed a few options to add some theming and story to this display, and Hoth was chosen as the theme for the base of this mannequin’s display. For this base we started out by carving out the basic shapes in rigid EPS foam. Once the shapes were cut out, we hard coated the entire foam sculpture to give it stability over time. We wanted to keep the paint scheme natural but not flat so we added the highlights of an icy blue color to the white base tone. To finish off the display and add a bit of texture we added a flocking style faux snow so our base looked like it had a fresh dusting of snow.

The finished display stands eight feet tall and has incredible presence. We eventually used a version of this body to create displays for Lucasfilm licensee ANOVOS to use at trade shows, displaying their incredible replica Darth Vader costumes.